Applications Track

The IT application ecosystem is going through dramatic transformations with the use of cloud computing and mobility. Users expect ever increasing and improving application functionality and are intolerant of disruptions to availability. IT leaders and practitioners have the unique opportunity to dramatically improve their ability to influence and enhance business activities and help their organizations meet their goals and objectives through effective application development, deployment, and management. If they succeed they will be the heroes of the organization; if they fail, end users and business units will go around IT to get what they need.

The Applications Track will address the challenges of application governance, deployment, management, and monitoring - both from a technology and business perspective.

Featured Applications Sessions

Cloud Adoption One Year On: Lessons LearnedIn this provocative and thought provoking session, Ken Griffin of Harvard Business Publishing will return to Interop with an update on his organization’s journey to the cloud for their applications and IT capabilities. In this real-world case study, Ken will discuss the lessons that he and his organization have learned thus far. Ken will focus on the adjustments to his strategy, areas that his organization has succeeded, and areas where his expectations weren’t met. He will also provide the audience with some key questions and considerations that he wished he had asked prior to engaging with cloud providers. He’ll provide information on new considerations based on his experiences to date.Speaker: Ken Griffin, Director, IT Services and Operations, Harvard Business School Publishing

Platform Gravity: A New Paradigm for Cloud-Based EnterprisesWith the explosion of SaaS and reduced costs of changing applications, organizations have more freedom to choose between products and are no longer bound by the platform stickiness of traditional enterprise software. The cons of switching software - data migration, backwards-compatibility, training, user provisioning - are no longer as burdensome as they used to be. The purchasing model has shifted away from large, one-off, purchasing prices towards a SaaS market. A new analogy - "platform gravity" - better describes today's enterprise application market. As apps vie for customers in the face of diminishing client lock-in, pricing, features, and ecosystems exclusively govern application traction - forcing vendors to innovate faster, listen better, and refocus efforts on users. In his session, Patrick White, CEO at Synata, will discuss best practices for selecting and deploying applications in this world of endless choice and explore how developers can thrive in this new environment.Speaker: Patrick White, CEO, Synata

The DevOps Pay Raise: Quantifying Your Value to Move Up the LadderDevOps, when done right, usually goes unnoticed. It’s only when something breaks that all eyes turn to IT. If your boss only sees you when the app is down, however, that’s not really doing your career any favors. In this session we’ll talk about how to prove your value to the organization by looking at the positive side: that is, how much money you’ve saved your company. We’ll take a look at how you can use tools like Chef, Puppet, Sensu and Logstash to quantify your value to your company. After this session, you’ll be able to walk into a meeting with your boss ready to talk about your value to the company (and to ask for a raise).Speaker: Dustin Whittle, Developer Evangelist, AppDynamics

Transforming IT: Connecting People, Applications and Information in the Cloud Today’s turbulent and competitive business environment is shifting from a model of central control to one that puts user needs at the center of IT planning and design. The challenge for most business and IT leaders is developing and implementing a new IT strategy that would easily and securely unify cloud applications with other on-premise solutions. Through the use of real-world case examples, this session will explore best practices for businesses to better leverage a robust set of integrated applications, and identify which available cloud solutions can help deliver enterprises a seamless experience for workers, helping them stay more connected, collaborative and productive. Speaker: Manjit Singh, Visionary Global Executive (CIO)/Board Member/Strategic Advisor, RiverMeadow Software/InformationWeek

What to Look For Before Taking the Managed Services LeapMore mid-market businesses want to take advantage of the latest tech advancements or have LAN- based hardware that has become end-of-life or end-of-support. Given increased complexity, many businesses ultimately look outside their organization for help managing services and applications – confusion often arises. Frascogna will draw on his vast experience helping NY metro area businesses plan new service adoption. Real-world case studies will be presented in support of presentation content. A major theme throughout presentation will be the importance of a company's vendors understanding its "story." Where are they, where do they want to go and why.Speaker: Carl Frascongna, Director Solutions, Engineering, Lightpath

Carl Frascongna, Director Solutions, Engineering, Lightpath

How to Register

The following passes will get you access to the Interop Conference program:

Track Chair

John Pironti

John P. Pironti is the President of IP Architects, LLC. He has designed and implemented enterprise wide electronic business solutions, information security and risk management strategy and programs, enterprise resiliency capabilities, and threat and vulnerability management solutions for key customers in a range of industries, including financial services, insurance, energy, government, hospitality, aerospace, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, media and entertainment, and information technology on a global scale.

John has a number of industry certifications including Certified in the Governance of Enterprise IT (CGEIT), Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA), Certified Information Security Manager (CISM), Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), Certified in Risk and Information System Control (CRISC), Information Systems Security Architecture Professional and (ISSAP) and Information Systems Security Management Professional (ISSMP).

John frequently provides briefings and acts as a trusted advisor to senior leaders of numerous organizations on information security and risk management and compliance topics and is also a member of a number of technical advisory boards for technology and services firms. He is also a published author and writer, highly quoted and often interviewed by global media, and an award winning frequent speaker on electronic business and information security and risk management topics at domestic and international industry conferences.